THE ROAD TO UNITY 

AMONG THE 
CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 



CHARLES W. ELIOT 




Class JEll 
Book.. l 



Copyright^ 10 . 



COKRIGHT DEPOSIT* 



THE ROAD TO UNITY 

AMONG THE 
CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 



THE ROAD TO UNITY 

AMONG THE 

CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 



BY 

CHARLES W. ELIOT, LL.D. 




THE BEACON PRESS 

25 Beacon Street 

boston : mass. 



3X« 

.E4 



Copyright, 1920, by 
THE BEACON PRESS, Inc. 



All rights reserved 



nz -5 1920 



©CI.A559 668 






FOREWORD 

THIS little volume contains the 
first of the addresses to be 
delivered through a series of 
years upon a foundation established by 
Mr. Arthur Emmons Pearson, who in 
1918 gave to the American Unitarian 
Association an endowment whereof the 
income is to be applied to the support of 
public addresses which shall promote 
"the advancement of mutual under- 
standing and helpfulness between the 
people of all denominations and 
creeds". 

The founder of this trust believes 
that "rational, temperate and kindly 
thought, word and action in matters of 
religion" are essential to the well-being 
of the Commonwealth, and desires 
through this foundation to serve the 
cause of religious amity and fellowship 
[5] 



Foreword 



and to help to bring into sympathy and 
cooperation all the forces of righteous- 
ness and goodwill. 

The agreement upon which the trus- 
tee holds the foundation requires that 
the lectures shall not be given "in any 
building or place under ecclesiastical 
ownership or control", and that they 
shall not "become an agency to further 
the particular beliefs of any sect". It 
is the hope of the founder that the ad- 
dresses will be in every respect con- 
structive, and that they may prove the 
"ineffectiveness of unfriendly criticism 
and negation". 

The addresses are to be delivered by 
such scholars as are deemed "best 
equipped by inclination and ability to 
carry out the purpose of the founda- 
tion", and it is provided that "denomi- 
national ties shall never act as an im- 
pediment to the choice of the lecturer". 

S. A. E. 
[6] 



The Road to Unity among 
the Christian Churches 

I ESTEEM it a privilege and an 
honor to serve as the first lecturer on 
this far-reaching and patient en- 
dowment. 

My subject is "The Road to Unity 
among the Christian Churches". Unity 
in religion, like peace, is a far-off goal. 
Mankind cannot expect to attain to it 
immediately or of a sudden ; but should 
try earnestly to move forward on the 
road towards it. 

I should confess at the outset that 
the idea of human progress towards 
unity in religion is not to be recon- 
ciled with the imperialistic conception 
of Christianity become institutional- 
[7] 



Unity through Domination 

ized, and regarding itself as the one 
true religion, revealed of God, em- 
bodied in sacred scriptures verbally in- 
spired, final and unchangeable, and 
hence sure to become universal. Mod- 
ern thought conceives of religions doc- 
trines and institutions as evolving or 
unfolding, like political, industrial, and 
social institutions. Moreover, Chris- 
tianity, as soon as it became well 
organized with bishops, priests, and 
ministers, and professional teachers 
and students, entered into relations with 
governments, and struggled for cen- 
turies to dominate them. In this strug- 
gle with the secular and political powers 
the Church long had much success, 
although by no means uniform success. 
Then unity was to be the result of domi- 
nation. The eighteenth century with 
its new philosophies and its revolutions 
in America and France put an end to 
the domination of governments by 
[8] 



Unification under Democracy 

churches, and gradually established in 
strong Christian nations two new prin- 
ciples of supreme importance: (1) tol- 
eration of all religions by the State, and 
(2) separation of Church from State. 
These two principles being written into 
the Constitution of the United States, 
the great republic became the exemplar 
and exponent of the new wisdom. Since 
democracy and religious toleration are 
inconsistent with the autocratic rule of 
any church over society, the enforce- 
ment of unity by an ecclesiastical au- 
thority has become impossible ; so that 
it is reasonable to inquire about the 
"Road to Unity among the Christian 
Churches". Unification being desir- 
able, let us consider first, how it cannot 
be won, and then how, probably, it 
can be. 

From the universality, in all ages, of 
religion of some sort among primitive, 
C9] 



Religious Beliefs Divisive 

barbarous, or civilized mankind, one 
might easily infer that religion had 
been a unifying force in human society, 
the unifying religion growing in purity 
and strength as the social organization 
improved; but the study of compara- 
tive religion in the different tribes, na- 
tions, and races of the world, from the 
earliest historical times to the present 
day, leads to the opposite conclusion. 
Religious beliefs and observances have 
been tribal, clannish, national, or racial, 
and so have promoted combative and 
persistent discord and estrangement 
rather than fellowship and unity. Re- 
ligious differences have frequently been 
causes of cruel fightings and persecu- 
tions, and fighting tribes or peoples have 
usually appealed with fervor to their 
several gods in support of their sepa- 
rate contentions, or have believed that 
they would receive effective protection 
and help each from its own god. 
[10] 



The Disposition to Worship 

The world-wide war, which seems 
about to cease, was something of an ex- 
ception to the general rule in this re- 
spect. On both sides large diversities 
of religious faiths and rites were amply 
represented, and although each belliger- 
ent nation believed that its peculiar god 
was on its side, the diversity of religious 
faiths and rites on both sides of the 
prodigious conflict was so great that dif- 
ferences of religion played no impor- 
tant part in determining either theories 
or practices in the fighting, or in the 
making of peace. Catholics and Protes- 
tants, Greek and Roman Christians, and 
Mohammedans and Buddhists of many 
sects fought with equal ardor on both 
sides. 

When we speak of religion as univer- 
sal we mean that the disposition to wor- 
ship something — animals, plants, stocks 
and stones, human beings, images fash- 
ioned by human hands, or spiritual ab- 
[11] 



Protection by Gods 



stractions or essences — is universal. So 
is the human craving for protection by 
superior beings from the adverse 
powers of Nature which all men have 
encountered from earliest times, and 
are still encountering. All heroes and 
adventurers, philosophers, magicians, 
or medicine men in history or in fiction 
have been supposed to enjoy the favor 
of some protecting deity, daemon, pa- 
tron saint, or other supernatural guard- 
ian, or helper. Even in the recent war, 
millions of soldiers wore icons, amulets, 
or charms as protection against injury 
or death. Thousands of dying Chris- 
tians wanted to kiss the crucifix or the 
Bible. Thousands of Mohammedans 
wanted to call on Allah, with their faces 
toward Mecca. When I was in Tokio 
in 1912, 1 witnessed by favor of the Gov- 
ernment a repetition of the simple re- 
ligious ceremonial used at an important 
Shinto Shrine on the annual Memorial 
[12] 



The Japanese Memorial Day 

Day for the Japanese soldiers who died 
for their country in the war with Bus- 
sia. It was a service of chant and prayer 
addressed with utmost reverence to a 
yellow silk screen standing in front of 
a cubical box about ten feet on each side 
made of lacquered wood. The screen 
bore no word or emblem. There was no 
window, door, or other opening into the 
box behind it. After the service I asked 
the principal officiating priest what the 
box contained, what relic, symbol, or 
other sacred object. He replied, "We 
priests do not know what is in the box 
or chamber; probably there is nothing 
in it". This annual ceremonial is at- 
tended every year by delegations from 
the Army and Navy, the Court, and the 
chief civil offices ; and cheap excursions 
from other parts of Japan are organized 
for the benefit of relatives of the sol- 
diers and sailors commemorated. Some 
years earlier I had witnessed the gor- 
[13] 



Man's Sense of Helplessness 

geous procession of the Corpus Christi 
in Vienna, an annual ceremonial in 
which State, Court, Church, and Army- 
participate. At many points on the 
line of march temporary altars were 
built and adorned with lights, inscrip- 
tions, sacred pictures, and statuary; 
and at these shrines the marching regi- 
ments knelt on one knee at the word of 
command, Catholics, Protestants, and 
Jews alike, without regard to the pri- 
vate beliefs of the individual soldier. By 
comparison, the national observance in 
Japan seems to me to have a more com- 
prehensive and tolerant character than 
that which I witnessed in Catholic Aus- 
tria; but both testify to the universal 
need of religious observances and cere- 
monials of some sort, and to the univer- 
sal desire to worship some deity, fa- 
miliar or unknown, kind or cruel, of 
proved or doubtful potency. The fear, 
and dread, and 'sense of helplessness 
[14] 



Baptism Comprehensive in Meaning 

amid the appalling powers of earth, sea, 
and air, the need of protection or de- 
fense, and the desire to worship are uni- 
versal; but the symbols, rites, and ob- 
servances to which these feelings give 
rise are rather divisive than unifying. 

No religious rite has proved more 
divisive than the Christian rite of bap- 
tism, a rite apparently based on the 
generally accepted opinion that water 
is cleansing or purifying. As a sacra- 
ment or ordinance of the Christian 
church, it has the comprehensive signifi- 
cance of an initiatory rite; but the 
proper subjects for baptism, and the 
proper methods of administering bap- 
tism have been and are matters of sharp 
dispute in the different branches of 
the Christian church. In Protestant 
churches it is a symbol of purification, 
and a seal of admission into the church 
of Christ ; but it is also a sign of regen- 
eration whereby they that receive bap- 
[15] 



The Rite of Baptism Divisive 

tism rightly are grafted into the 
Church. In all Christian Churches bap- 
tism must be performed by a duly au- 
thorized person, and always with the 
words "I baptize thee in the name of 
the Father and of the Son and of the 
Holy Ghost", or some close equivalent. 
In the Roman Catholic, Greek, and most 
Protestant churches, infants and chil- 
dren, who have not attained an age at 
which they can possibly take conscious 
and understanding part in the cere- 
mony, are admitted to baptism ; while in 
the various Baptist denominations, only 
those are admitted who give evidence of 
possessing some Christian experience. 
Among Baptists themselves, there are 
nearly a dozen different groups or di- 
visions, maintaining distinct churches 
under as many different names, which 
in their theology and their creed, may be 
as wide apart as Calvinism and TJni- 
tarianism. In the Greek and other 
[16] 



The Rite of Baptism Divisive 

Eastern churches, and among the Bap- 
tists, the rite is commonly administered 
by immersion, but in the Western 
churches by sprinkling or pouring. The 
Friends, however, reject all use of water 
in baptism, regarding Christian bap- 
tism as purely a spiritual process. To 
this day, the Christian Church is split 
into unsympathetic factions by differ- 
ences in the administration of the 
simple rite of baptism, and in the con- 
ceptions of its significance or efficacy. 
Moreover, the Baptists, or as they were 
first called the Anabaptists, have in 
several generations suffered severe 
persecutions in many countries, al- 
though the sect dates only from the 
epoch of the Reformation. 

Strange as it seems to men of other 
religions, the celebration of the Lord's 
Supper has also been the cause of seri- 
ous divisions in the Christian Church. 
The various denominations differ 
[17] 



The Lord's Supper also Divisive 

deeply over the question, who may be 
admitted to the communion? They 
have differed for many centuries about 
the nature or condition of the food and 
drink used at the Supper, some think- 
ing that these elements are natural 
bread and wine; others that these sub- 
stances are converted during the mass, 
into the very flesh and blood of Jesus 
Christ. I have seen in Egypt, at the 
celebration of the very ancient Mass of 
the Coptic Church, the pains taken by 
the priest and the acolytes at the altar, 
that no drop of that precious blood 
should remain unconsumed, the priest 
and acolytes together swallowing not 
only the remnant of the blood itself, 
but the rinsings of the cup. Within 
recent years grave dissensions have 
arisen in the Anglican Church over the 
admission of Dissenters to the celebra- 
tion of the Lord's Supper in Anglican 
churches, the action of certain Bishops 
[18] 



Burial Services Differ 



admitting them being warmly protested 
against by other Bishops; and at this 
moment the controversy is renewed. 

The different churches of Christen- 
dom also differ widely in their burial 
services; some finding intolerable ser- 
vices which others regard as comforting 
and precious. 

Many religious ceremonies have pro- 
pitiatory or expiatory significance. All 
these have been extremely divisive, be- 
cause of the different ideas about the 
nature of the Deity addressed, which 
are expressed or implied in the offerings 
or gifts used. In these ceremonies dif- 
ferent oblations and sacrifices are used 
by different tribes and races, and the 
races which attempt propitiation or ex- 
piation have had different develop- 
ments or histories and have reached dif- 
ferent stages of civilization. Within the 
covers of the Bible we pass from hu- 
man sacrifices to animal sacrifices, such 
[19] 



The Cruel God in Genesis 

as bullocks and poultry, and from them 
to the fruits of the earth, and thence to 
a broken spirit or a contrite heart. In 
the long files of Buddhist worshippers 
who go up on certain days of the year 
to a shrine which contains some sacred 
image or relic, one may see each indi- 
vidual worshipper carrying a single 
yellow flower as his sacrifice or offering 
on the altar, a flower which may be 
picked from common bushes or shrubs 
at the roadside. It is a long road from 
human sacrifices to such a flower; but 
the length of the road only feebly sym- 
bolizes the immense change in the con- 
ception of Deity, which accompanies 
changes in the offerings made to Him. 
We read in Genesis that Q-od com- 
manded Abraham to take his only son 
Isaac and offer him as a burnt offering 
on a mountain three days' journey dis- 
tant, just to test Abraham's obedience. 
What an exquisitely cruel Deity was 
[20] 



Symbols and Idols Divisive 

that ! Think of that three days' journey 
for the father with the beloved lad, two 
of the " father's young men," and an 
ass. From that God of Genesis to 
the just and merciful God described by 
the best leaders of Christian thought to- 
day there runs a long road on which the 
traveller may see innumerable rites, rit- 
uals, ceremonies, and observances that 
have kept mankind divided into groups, 
bands, tribes, or sections, but have never 
even tended to produce unification of 
the race in religious sentiment and 
therefore in religious institutions, or to 
hasten the day when men shall worship 
a loving God in spirit only. 

Sacred observances and ceremonials, 
and other traditional rites in religious 
worship, have been extremely divisive 
through the whole history of our race ; 
because, although possessing common 
features such as postures, dances, sacri- 
fices of human beings, animals, or food 
[21] 



Ceremonials Divisive 



and drink, and symbols in wood, metal, 
or stone, they were extraordinarily di- 
verse in their details; and separation 
into families, clans, tribes, nations, and 
races was often promoted by an intense 
clinging to the details of rites, rituals, 
and symbols. One tribe of primitive 
men made an idol of the coyote, another 
of the white fox, and a third of a croco- 
dile ; one race adored a carved pole, an- 
other a cross or a crescent, and others 
the sun, fire, or a lamp that never went 
out ; so that common worship by two 
tribes, nations, or races would become 
inconceivable. One priest must touch 
his forehead to the altar at one stage of 
the rite he is performing ; another feels 
no such necessity. One Christian sect 
preferred to stand in prayer, another to 
kneel, and no threats of fine or exile or 
death could induce one sect to take the 
posture of the other. One church be- 
lieved that only adults should be bap- 
[22] 



Postures and Dances Divisive 

tized, another that all babies should be 
baptized as soon as possible after birth ; 
and durable divisions in the Christian 
church were based on that difference of 
belief. Although religious dances have 
been well-nigh universal, the kind of 
dance has varied indefinitely, and enor- 
mous importance has been attached to 
the variations. Among the North 
American Indians festival dances and 
war dances of one kind or another were 
common ; but each tribe possessed varia- 
tions in the dancing which seemed to it 
indispensable to its religious effects. In 
the Mohammedan church there are 
many kinds of dancing dervishes; but 
all their proceedings are different from 
the Greek and Roman dances of pagan 
times. Within Christian denomina- 
tions religious dancing has varied all 
the way from the dancing of the choir 
boys before the very altar in the cathe- 
dral at Seville once a year, dressed in 
[23] 



Diversity in Bites Persistent 

white coats trimmed with scarlet, white 
breeches, white stockings, black pumps, 
and cocked hats, to the rhythmic move- 
ments of the Shakers in New England. 
Such ceremonials never have had, and 
never can have, any unifying influence 
in religion ; because they cannot be uni- 
versal, but must conform locally to the 
infinite variety of human nature in in- 
dividuals or in groups. 

May we then suppose that the exist- 
ing diversities respecting religious sym- 
bols, rites, observances, rituals and lit- 
anies are going to cease from among 
men? Far from it. These diversities 
correspond in some measure to the in- 
finite diversity in human nature, and 
also to the different stages of civiliza- 
tion that characterize different races, 
races which, though living side by side 
or commingled on the same area today, 
have had widely different origins and 
histories. In particular, differences in 
[24] 



Different Rituals will Persist 

rituals and litanies will be likely to be 
long-lived, for one man loves to repeat 
the same words and phrases every time 
he goes to church, hear the same songs, 
put up the same prayers, and make the 
same promises, whereas another man 
prefers variety in the readings, sing- 
ings, and exhortations which he listens 
to at church, and in particular desires 
that the lessons he learns there should 
be adaptable year after year to the 
changing circumstances of his family, 
neighbors, and country, and to the de- 
velopment of his own experience, ca- 
reer, and character. Human beings dif- 
fer in no respect more widely than in 
their endurance of monotony and repe- 
tition. Change, even if it be progress, 
is repulsive to many human beings, 
while to others, variety, and especially 
some forward movement is indispen- 
sable. Again, since religious ceremo- 
nials accompany what are the chief 
[25] 



Forms Outlast Faiths 



events of life in all generations, such as 
birth, puberty, marriage, grave sick- 
ness, and death, they change but slowly 
in any tribe, clan, or nation, and persist 
in use or application long after the be- 
liefs on which they were originally 
founded have ceased to be entertained. 

In spite, however, of their firm 
grounding in the various kinds of hu- 
man nature, liturgies and litanies do 
undergo from century to century a 
gradual process of revision, remaining, 
however, divisive and not unifying in- 
fluences in religion. They may remain 
in active use for centuries after both 
priest and people have ceased to believe 
in the affirmations therein contained; 
because they become imbedded in pre- 
cious social customs and associated with 
undying affections. 

Two great social forces tend to pro- 
long and intensify the differences in hu- 
man nature on which diversity in re- 
[26] 



Democracy Develops Diversity 

ligion depends, and will depend. One of 
these forces is Democracy, which pro- 
motes not equality but inequality among 
men; since it leaves each capable citi- 
zen free to rise through mobile social 
and industrial classifications, and every 
genius free to develop to his utmost, and 
do his best for the common welfare. 
The other diversifying force is Educa- 
tion become universal, and tending to 
specialization. The more unlike the 
men and women of any generation be- 
come in consequence of political, indus- 
trial, and social liberty, and broader 
education, the greater diversity there 
will be in religious beliefs, ceremonies, 
and observances. 

Another manifestation of the reli- 
gious need in man seems to be the crea- 
tion and ready acceptance of the myth 
as a basis of religious beliefs and creeds. 
Some myths are more common than 
[27] 



Myths are Divisive 



others, but all are local in origin and 
limited geographically or racially. Mod- 
ern scholarship has not yet made an 
orderly compendium of myths, either 
chronologically or geographically ar- 
ranged; so that argument from either 
myths supposed to be universal or from 
those supposed to be local should be used 
with great caution. Nevertheless, 
myths today form the background or 
foundation of many dogmas, obser- 
vances, and rituals which have divided 
past generations for centuries, and still 
divide present generations into discor- 
dant and contentious groups, long after 
the myths themselves have ceased to be 
believed, or are accepted only as inter- 
esting fairy tales, or crude products of 
the human imagination in primitive 
times. The myths in Hebrew, Indian, 
Egyptian, Greek, and Roman literature 
are innumerable. They were imbedded 
in precious literature of nations which 
[28] 



The Myth of the Garden of Eden 

developed them; so that they continue 
to be borne in affectionate remembrance 
by modern generations, and modern lit- 
erature abounds in allusions to their 
deities and their heroes and heroines. 
The myth which has had most influence 
on the Hebrew-Christian religion is 
that of the Garden of Eden and the ex- 
perience of Adam and Eve in that gar- 
den under the deceitful guidance and 
cruel rule of the God depicted in Gene- 
sis. Most of the systematic theologies 
of the great churches of Christendom 
start from the acceptance as a literal 
fact of the fall of man as depicted in the 
myth of the Garden of Eden. It was 
that fall of Adam into sin under the 
instigation of God which made neces- 
sary the whole scheme of redemption 
and atonement by Jesus Christ, and 
made the death of the divine Jesus on 
the cross a sufficient sacrifice to justify 
God in saving from eternal punishment 
[29] 



Myths Weak Foundation for Truth 

some portion of the human generations 
which inherit Adam's nature, once in- 
nocent but become so desperately sinful 
that to this day many of them cry in 
their churches " There is no health in 
us". Acceptance of this myth as a 
record of fact becomes more and more 
impossible for educated human beings 
who obtain some knowledge of history, 
ethics, and science ; so that the founda- 
tions of systematic theology in the prin- 
cipal denominations of Christians be- 
come more and more insecure, and the 
dogmas built on them less and less suc- 
cessful as permanent statements of un- 
alterable truth. 

Creeds have always been intended to 
produce identity of beliefs in multi- 
tudes. The usual object of a creed is 
clearly stated in the Articles of the 
Church of England as agreed upon in 
the Convocation holden at London in 
[30] 



Bo Creeds Procure Uniform Beliefs'? 

the year 1562, namely, "for the avoiding 
of diversities of opinions, and for the 
establishing of consent touching true 
religion". After James I came to the 
throne in 1603 he issued a Declaration 
saying of the Articles of the Church 
— "We do therefore ratify and con- 
firm them, requiring all our loving 
subjects to continue in the uniform 
profession thereof and prohibiting the 
least difference from, the said Articles". 
In another paragraph the King declares, 
"from which we will not endure any 
varying or departing in the least de- 
gree". A creed is usually a reasoned 
statement of religious belief more or 
less intelligible to educated persons, but 
intended to be accepted on authority by 
multitudes of the uneducated, to whom 
it is well-nigh completely unintelligible. 
In a well-organized church regarded as 
a permanent institution, its creed is 
taught generation after generation to 
[31] 



No Unifying Power in Creeds 

children, who as a rule attach no clear 
idea to its words or phrases, but commit 
them to memory without knowledge of 
their meaning and with no curiosity 
about them or interest in them. Yet in 
the Middle Ages formal acceptance of a 
creed, however unintelligible, was a pre- 
scription which every Christian must 
obey. Here seemed to be a means of en- 
forcing a uniform body of beliefs on 
every Christian. Was there not here a 
unifying power of high value ! The his- 
tory of creeds shows that no such effect 
was produced by even the most famous 
and enduring creeds. In the first place, 
the creeds resulted as a rule from long- 
continuing disputes within the Chris- 
tian Church. After generations of con- 
test there would be evolved in some 
council of the church a creed which was 
the result of a compromise and of a ma- 
jority vote in large, disputatious, and 
turbulent assemblies. Secondly, a creed 
[32] 



No Dominant Creed 



was no sooner adopted than quarrels 
arose over its interpretation. 

In the history of creeds the most 
striking things have been their multi- 
plicity, and the fact that there has been 
no dominant creed, or one that can 
rightly claim derivation from the New 
Testament or from the apostolic age. 
The Apostles did not produce the so- 
called Apostles creed, which was a 
much later invention, though still 
ancient. The Mcene creed is a compila- 
tion from at least three pre-existing 
creeds, and exists in many different ver- 
sions. The story of the Athanasian 
creed is obscure, uncertain, extremely 
complicated, and full of doubtful inci- 
dents and unverifiable guesses. It be- 
gins thus : — " Whosoever will be saved, 
before all things it is necessary that he 
hold the Catholic faith, which faith 
except every one do keep whole and un- 
defiled, without doubt he shall perish 
[33] 



No Unifying Creed 



everlastingly. And the Catholic faith 
is this": Then follows a long exposi- 
tion of the doctrine of the Trinity, 
highly metaphysical, recalling century- 
long disputes among bishops and 
priests, and concluding with this sen- 
tence, "He therefore who will be saved 
must thus think of the Trinity". It 
then gives a long definition of the incar- 
nation of our Lord Jesus Christ and of 
the last judgment, and concludes with 
this sentence, "This is the Catholic 
faith which except a man believe faith- 
fully he cannot be saved". Has this 
creed been a unifying influence in the 
Christian Church % On the contrary, it 
has been the source of contentions and 
divisions from somewhere in the fifth 
century, when it was first written, to 
the present day. The Church of Eng- 
land has prescribed for several genera- 
tions past that the Athanasian creed 
shall be sung or said at morning prayer 
[34] 



Creeds can No Longer be Enforced 

on twelve feasts and Trinity Sunday, 
instead of the Apostles creed, as its con- 
fession of Christian faith. These di- 
rections have, however, not been gener- 
ally obeyed for many years past, and at 
the present moment a proposition is 
under consideration to change the for- 
mer strict prescription into a permis- 
sion to the clergy to read the Athana- 
sian creed on one Sunday in the year. 
It is not in the nature of things or in 
the nature of man that a confession of 
faith should be acceptable to many suc- 
cessive generations of men, even if the 
men be of the same stock or race, and 
have had much common experience. 
This impossibility becomes even more 
manifest when one considers the variety 
of stocks or races within the Christian 
fold, and the great variety of expe- 
riences among the different nations dur- 
ing the past nineteen hundred years. 
Creeds have always been dependent 
[35] 



Creeds Strongly Divisive 

for comprehensive enforcement on some 
strong ecclesiastical or secular author- 
ity, both able and willing to use fine, im- 
prisonment, or torture on its subjects, 
when persuasion and command failed. 
Now, in the modern world the force of 
all authority in family, school, church, 
and nation has been visibly declining. 
Human society is governed less and less 
by mere authority of ruler or ruling 
class, and is inclining more and more to 
liberty, discussion, publicity, and vol- 
untary cooperation. In the region of 
beliefs the exercise of authority has 
always been difficult; because beliefs 
may be held privately and be concealed 
from all authority, but nevertheless be 
transmitted by the quiet processes of 
heredity, or be spread abroad by heroic 
martyrdoms and the fires of persecu- 
tion. In short, the creeds intended to 
crystallize religious beliefs and make 
them uniform and permanent have al- 
[36] 



Dogmas Highly Divisive 



ways failed to produce either unifor- 
mity or permanence in religious thought 
and practice, and have been on the 
whole strongly divisive in their effects. 

Dogma has been no more fortunate 
than creed in promoting religious unity. 
A dogma is a principle or doctrine re- 
ceived on authority ; and since authority 
declines and truth is progressive gener- 
ation after generation and century after 
century, it is inevitable that dogma 
should be on the whole divisive. If it be 
true, as John Robinson said, that much 
further light is to come from the Gos- 
pel, and "it is not possible that the full 
perfection of knowledge should break 
forth at once", then the dogmas of one 
century will cease to control the people 
of another, and dogmas which lose their 
former essence, or their former inter- 
pretation, and become inapplicable or 
uninteresting to the generation actually 
[37] 



Priestly Powers 



in power, will cease to bind people to- 
gether with any effective bond. 

In various branches of the Christian 
church high authority has attached to 
the priest as the presenter of sacred 
gifts to Deity, and a propitiator or 
defender for the private sinner. The 
priest has been supposed to possess mys- 
terious or supernatural powers, like the 
Eoman augur or the North American 
medicine man. The priest is also the 
conductor of ceremonials and rituals, 
and in some religions some touch or 
word from him is indispensable to any 
promising entrance into another life. In 
the whole Christian world belief in these 
supernatural attributes or powers of 
the priest, and in their transmission 
from one human being to another by the 
laying on of hands or other sanctifying 
rite, has been gradually declining ever 
since exact science has been providing 
[38] 



Natural and Supernatural Causes 

the race with innumerable successful 
applications of inductive reasoning, and 
with large extensions of the human 
powers of exact observation and record. 
With this decline of priestly authority 
goes a general decline of belief in super- 
natural powers and events ; and this last 
decline is promoted by the increase of 
knowledge and of man's power over Na- 
ture, so striking within the last century 
and a half. The change of opinion on 
this subject is promoted by the frequent 
shifting of the line between the sup- 
posed natural and the supposed super- 
natural. Many processes formerly at- 
tributed to supernatural causes have 
been discovered to be wholly natural, 
and many extraordinary happenings 
formerly attributed to supernatural be- 
ings or powers are now attributed to 
natural agencies. The human race may 
now be sure that the wonders of Nature 
are greater and not less mysterious than 
[39] 



Sacerdotal Authority Declining 

the wonders heretofore called miracles. 
Every hospital, every telephone or wire- 
less station, and every garden, pasture, 
or bird's nest in the Spring demon- 
strates this fact, and the amazing prog- 
ress of chemistry, physics, and biology 
only confirms it. God's wonders on the 
deep or in the air are just as wonderful 
as they ever were, although no longer 
supposed to be interventions of God for 
the benefit or the destruction of one or 
many human beings. 

Since faith in magic, miracle, occult 
processes, abnormal interventions of 
supernatural powers, or individual pos- 
session of supernatural gifts has been 
much more frequently a divisive than 
a unifying belief, we may view with 
calmness, and indeed with hopeful an- 
ticipation, this decline in sacerdotal or 
ecclesiastical authority, and in the 
supernatural effects of the sacraments 
or ceremonials which men, supposed to 
[40] 



The New Unifying Forces 

possess peculiar bodily and spiritual 
gifts or graces, conduct or administer. 
There will, indeed, always be need in 
human society of public teachers, and 
spiritual heralds, prophets, and leaders ; 
but the production and development of 
such leaders will be thoroughly under- 
stood to be natural events, and the race 
will all the more rejoice in them, and 
follow them with the more enthusiasm 
and gladness, because they are natural. 
All men and women who hope to learn 
to love God and their neighbors cannot 
but rejoice, therefore, that the authority 
of creeds, dogmas, and priestcraft is di- 
minishing throughout the world. 

It is time to turn from the divisive 
religious forces of the past to the unify- 
ing forces of the present and the future. 

Religion in the past has dwelt chiefly 
on the evils with which mankind has 
had to contend, and on the defenses 
[41] 



The Depraved a Minority 

which weak and trembling man has 
imagined against supernatural powers, 
mostly malign, passionate, or unjust, 
and all mysterious and frightful. Re- 
ligion now begins to dwell rather on the 
infinite beauty, both moral and physical, 
which the universe manifests, on the 
dignity and prevailing loveliness of hu- 
man nature, and on the wonderful 
adaptation of man's nature to the uni- 
verse in which he dwells. No thinking 
person believes any longer in total hu- 
man depravity. Everybody perceives 
that human society could not exist, and 
never could have existed, unless the vast 
majority of mankind had been well- 
disposed, affectionate, and trustworthy, 
— especially modern civilized society 
which has lately acquired through sci- 
entific discovery and invention such tre- 
mendous means of destruction. It is 
evident that the burglars, murderers, 
and dynamiters are highly exceptional 
[42] 



The Expectation of Good 



individuals, rare among the millions of 
people who make up modern cities and 
states. Mankind still trembles at the 
lightning, the storm, the volcano, the 
earthquake, the flood, and the drought ; 
but no longer sees in them the vengeful 
or punitive action of malignant and 
cruel deities. Thinking people say of 
the heavens and the earth, and all that 
in them is just what Emerson said of 
the beautiful rhodora, "The self -same 
power that brought me here, brought 
you". This is the revolution in men's 
thought of God and man which has been 
quietly accepted by great masses of 
mankind during the past hundred years. 
It has substituted expectation of good at 
God's hands for dread of evil, has made 
incredible the older creeds and dogmas, 
and so has prepared the way for unifica- 
tion in religion. Some distinct expres- 
sions of this tendency to unification are 
already visible, indeed are in force : — 
[43] 



The American Constitution 

The United States contributed power- 
fully, through the adoption of its Con- 
stitution in 1789, to the oncoming of so- 
cial structures in which religion shall 
be a unifying instead of a divisive force. 
In the first place, it separated com- 
pletely the State from the Church, and 
guaranteed to all religious bodies within 
the national territory equal protection 
and unhampered movement. In short, 
religious toleration was made absolute 
and complete. In so doing it made im- 
possible any establishment of religion. 
There can be in the United States no 
domination of any religion over another 
or the others. With this separation 
went inevitably a decline of ecclesiasti- 
cal power in several of the churches 
largely represented in the United 
States ; and, in conformity with the gen- 
eral tendency in American politics and 
industries, cooperation between differ- 
ent bodies which pursue some common 
[M] 



Cooperation in Good Works 

ends increases, while hot pursuit of the 
objects which distinguish one body from 
another diminishes. The American 
States are independent and durable 
entities, but they cooperate under 
the Federal Government for common 
ends. So may independent and dur- 
able churches cooperate in safety and 
freedom. 

In like manner, voluntary coopera- 
tion for a common end among distinct 
churches or religions is one of the most 
encouraging phenomena of these times. 
In France, during the War the Young 
Men's Christian Association's huts were 
available indiscriminately for religious 
services conducted by priests of the 
Greek and Roman Catholic Churches 
and of the Anglican Church, by the min- 
isters of all Evangelical Protestant 
faiths, by the Jewish Rabbis, and the 
Mohammedan mullahs and muezzins. 
The Knights of Columbus gave their 
[45] 



A Religion that Works 



stocks of chocolate, candy, cakes, and 
tobacco to Catholics, Protestants, and 
Jews, alike. The Salvation Army- 
served hot doughnuts and coffee in the 
front trenches without asking a ques- 
tion about the state of the souls of the 
men that ate them. All Red Cross work 
was done for suffering humanity, no 
matter of what race or religion. Men 
of very different religions fought side 
by side, rescued comrades, endured 
hardships, bore pain, and met death in 
much the same spirit, and without pay- 
ing any regard to the religious creeds, 
dogmas, rites, observances, or rituals 
which had divided them when at home 
and at peace. This generous spirit is 
something new in the religious bodies 
I have mentioned. 

One reason for this remarkable ad- 
vance towards unification in religion 
appears to have been the complete dis- 
missal of the self -reference implied in 
[46] 



The Reflective Soldier's Religion 

the question which the agents of differ- 
ent denominations and religions often 
address to the thoughtless novice or 
careless inquirer, "How do you ex- 
pect to be saved'?" The religious mo- 
tive which the reflecting soldier felt was 
completely unselfish. He was suffering 
and risking his life for his comrades, 
his home, his family, his country, or for 
posterity. He found himself living in 
a horrible atmosphere of destruction 
and cruelty, compelled to kill and wound 
f ellowmen, and to inflict on the enemy 
all sorts of suffering and loss. He was 
ready to do his part to prevent the re- 
currence of such horrors and abomina- 
tions, to deliver coming generations 
from such catastrophes as he was wit- 
nessing, and to make the world a safer 
and happier place for other generations 
to live in. He had made up his mind 
to sacrifice his all, if necessary, for the 
good of others. Hence, he had no use 
[47] 



True Religion Unselfish 



for any religion which offered him some 
exclusive means of personal salvation. 
We may all hope that one of the good 
results of the awful war, in which al- 
most the entire world has been engaged, 
will be a new chance for comprehen- 
siveness and disinterestedness, instead 
of exclusiveness and selfishness, in 
religion. 

This hope may fairly gain strength 
from another phenomenon which is ap- 
pearing in many parts of what is called 
"the missionary field", — that is, in the 
field of effort by many different denom- 
inations of Christians to convert the 
heathen peoples to Christianity. In the 
first place, during recent years different 
denominations of Protestant Christians 
have found it possible to unite in certain 
kinds of missionary work. Anglicans, 
Methodists, Presbyterians, and Con- 
gregationalists, for example, are now 
able to unite in conducting hospitals, 
[48] 



The Present Work of the F. M . C. A. 

medical schools, infirmaries, and asy- 
lums for the sick and wounded among 
heathen peoples. The Young Men's 
Christian Associations, maintained by 
several denominations acting together, 
teach languages, history, civics, and 
sanitation to young people in heathen 
lands without asking whether the pu- 
pils are, or intend to become, Christians. 
The Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tions also teach out-of-door sports, like 
baseball, football, and tennis, to Orien- 
tal youth without asking any questions 
about the religion of the players; thus 
doing great good with money drawn 
from various Christian denominations 
and through teachers appointed without 
inquiry as to the sects from which they 
are selected. 

Within thirty years the mode of at- 
tack of Christian missionaries on pa- 
gans whom they wish to convert to 
Christianity has changed very much. 
[49] 



New Missionary Methods 

They no longer begin by telling those 
who are induced to listen to them that 
they are poor ignorant creatures lost 
in this world and the next, and that their 
ancestors have all gone to Hell. On the 
contrary, they recognize every good 
element in the ancestral religion of their 
listeners, and build on whatever sound 
moral and religious ideas exist in the 
background and surroundings of their 
hearers. Through the habitual use of 
this method hard-working missionaries 
in many mission fields become more and 
more liberal in their religious views the 
longer they stay in their respective 
fields; and it is getting to be the rule 
that the missionaries actually at work 
among pagans are decidedly more lib- 
eral in their religious opinions than the 
Boards of Trustees who support and 
govern them from afar. 

Some approach to Christian unity 
has been brought about by the various 
[50] 



Federations of Churches 



federations of churches which have been 
formed and brought into operation dur- 
ing the last fifty years. The Bible So- 
ciety was a forerunner of these move- 
ments. The Evangelical Alliance was 
another. Between 1883 and 1895 sev- 
eral local leagues or commissions came 
into being, covering single states or 
even smaller territories. The Free 
Church Council of England resulted 
from a conviction that Protestantism 
should present a united front to Cathol- 
icism and ecclesiasticism. In this coun- 
try a National Federation of Churches 
was first formed in a preliminary way 
in the year 1900, but it was only in 1905 
that the Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America came 
into being with a written constitution 
and a delegate membership. This or- 
ganization held its first meeting in 1908. 
Unfortunately the name of this organ- 
ization was more comprehensive than 
[51] 



A Federal Council of Some Churches 

its constitution; for Unitarians, Uni- 
versalists, and Hicksite Friends were 
not admitted. The evangelical denomi- 
nations were not prepared to admit that 
these three denominations could main- 
tain churches properly called Christian. 
A remarkable conference on foreign 
missions which represented all Protes- 
tant bodies except the Unitarian was 
held in Edinburgh in 1910; and this 
meeting was characterized by a large 
agreement on common practices and ob- 
jects in religious work; but questions 
of belief, polity, and rubric were inev- 
itably excluded from discussion. When 
this country went to war in 1917 the 
Federal Council of the Churches of 
Christ in America held a special meet- 
ing in Washington to consider the 
duties of the churches in a great na- 
tional crisis ; and at this meeting Prot- 
estant Christianity in the United 
States was strongly and comprehen- 
[52] 



Federation for Practical Tasks 

sively represented, except that the small 
denominations called Unitarian, Uni- 
versalist, and Hicksite Friends were 
excluded. 

There is a great difference, however, 
between church federation and church 
unity. Federation deals with practical 
tasks, such as the training of ministers, 
the partition of the missionary field at 
home and abroad among the different 
denominations, the resistance to great 
evils like alcoholism and commercial- 
ized vice, the rallying of young people 
to social work among women and chil- 
dren, and among families that have lost 
in any way their chief supporters. Fed- 
eration can promote powerfully every 
practical work which resembles that of 
the Good Samaritan, taking no account 
of conditions like that mentioned in the 
Parable — "for the Jews had no deal- 
ings with the Samaritans". 

Federation could not deal, and does 
[53] 



The Massachusetts Federation 

not attempt to deal, with questions of 
organization and government, like that 
of the Episcopacy or the Synod, for ex- 
ample. Neither can it rest on any doc- 
trinal basis. In respect to dogmas and 
observances deemed indispensable, any 
Church Federation must remain indi- 
vidualistic. The sole object of federa- 
tion is cooperation for practical ends, in 
short, for good social works. It seeks 
the maximum cooperation of existing 
ecclesiastical organizations in work for 
human welfare, while they continue to 
be recognized as distinct bodies having 
other important functions. It recog- 
nizes interdependence, a large sharing 
of common motives, and an indefinite 
capacity for common efforts to promote 
human welfare. The Massachusetts 
Federation of Churches, which does not 
exclude Unitarians and Universalists, 
maintains committees on the following 
subjects: comity, evangelism, finance, 
[54] 



Men's Clubs and Laymen's Leagues 

home missions, industrial relations, leg- 
islation, local federations, international 
relations, philanthropies, religious edu- 
cation, rural life, and temperance. 
These subjects, with the possible excep- 
tion of evangelism, relate to practical 
matters in which churches which differ 
widely as regards dogmas and the con- 
ditions of admission to the Lord's Sup- 
per can cordially cooperate. This is a 
federation of twenty-five ecclesiastical 
bodies, of fifteen denominations, and 
represents 2300 churches. 

Church federation is not Christian 
unity, but it is a long step toward 
the unification of Christianity and 
that realization of human fellowship 
which the Parable of the Good 
Samaritan inculcates. The work of 
federation for practical ends will be 
greatly furthered when the business and 
professional laymen come to taking 
active and diligent part in the practical 
[55] 



The Palliation of Evils 



work of the churches. In all the churches 
there is need of wise guidance by lay- 
men to the best endeavors to promote 
genuine human well-being. The new 
activity of Men's Clubs and Laymen's 
Leagues in many churches is therefore 
a good sign. 

There are many kinds of philan- 
thropic effort among which the churches 
may choose. Thus the Roman Catholic 
church devotes itself chiefly to the pal- 
liation of the evils of poverty, ignor- 
ance, pestilence, and war, accepting the 
existence of evil as part of the scheme 
of divine Providence, and then trying 
to mitigate by prayer, almsgiving, and 
the provision of hospitals, asylums, and 
refuges, the evils which Providence per- 
mits. Another kind of philanthropic 
effort is the endeavor to prevent the 
spread or growth of evils in the com- 
munity. The human race used to think 
that the great epidemics of contagious 
[56] 



The Prevention of Evils 



disease and the personal disasters from 
alcoholic drink were parts of the nat- 
ural order, that they were irresistible 
and it was no use to try to prevent them. 
Today almost everybody knows that 
these evils can be resisted and limited in 
range, thereby protecting mankind 
from infinite suffering and loss. The 
achievements of preventive medicine 
during the last hundred years amply il- 
lustrate the possibilities of preventing 
many of the evils and wrongs which 
now afflict humanity. The work in in- 
dustrial medicine, which just now be- 
gins to be done, is going to illustrate 
admirably this second sort of philan- 
thropic endeavor; and it is a striking 
fact that this new mode of doing good 
among men is proceeding not from 
churches but from industrial corpora- 
tions led by a few physicians and sur- 
geons of large mental and moral vision. 
The third sort of social endeavor toward 
[57] 



Social and Industrial Efforts 

human welfare builds up good work, 
good play, and health and joy in work, 
and by so doing excludes evil imagin- 
ing and wrong doing. This constructive 
philanthropy is more valuable even 
than the preventive, and very superior 
to the palliative. In the list of subjects 
on which committees are appointed in 
the Massachusetts Federation of 
Churches are included five of these 
efforts to do constructive things, 
namely, home missions, industrial re- 
lations, religious education, rural life, 
and temperance. 

To promote the constructive action of 
churches in the promotion of human 
welfare, it is of the utmost importance 
that all the churches should firmly op- 
pose any social or industrial doctrine 
or custom which if accepted must in- 
evitably impair the purity and vigor of 
human character. Churches, and es- 
pecially ministers, should ask them- 
[58] 



Religious Education Association 

selves, does this or that existing doc- 
trine or this or that present practice 
tend to enfeeble or to invigorate the 
moral qualities of a true man or a true 
woman. What is the effect on human 
character of the doctrine or custom 
under consideration % The choice of any 
church among proposed or actual social 
and industrial efforts should be deter- 
mined by its answer to this question. 

Another effectual means towards the 
unification of the various agencies that 
work towards the wholesome develop- 
ment of the human race mentally, physi- 
cally and spiritually, is an organization 
created sixteen years ago under the title 
' i Eeligious Education Association ' ', 
the purpose of which is to inspire all 
the educational forces of the country 
with just and moving religious ideals, 
and on the other hand to bring about 
the adoption by the various religious 
[59] 



The New Religious Education 

agencies of the new educational ideals. 
This Association is a free fellowship. It 
is open to all men and women of what- 
ever creed or denomination who desire 
to promote moral and religions ideals in 
education, and educational ideals in 
religion. It does not propose to sup- 
plant or compete with any existing 
agency of religious education. It pre- 
pares no textbooks and is not the organ 
of any sect or particularist movement. 
It endeavors to promote, both within 
and without existing religious organiza- 
tions, the kind of religious education, 
which makes for the progress of a hu- 
mane and democratic society. It col- 
lects from world-wide sources the 
freshest information concerning meth- 
ods and processes of religious education 
and makes the information available 
through its magazine, its library, its 
office, its conventions, and conferences. 
Finally, it contributes to the creation 
[60] 



The New Religious Fellowship 

and organization of a new class of pro- 
fessional workers in religious educa- 
tion, who study the new processes and 
methods of education and give to all ex- 
isting institutions of religious educa- 
tion a new kind of leadership. This 
Association not only sets an admirable 
example in its liberal constitution and 
heterogeneous membership but also 
has behind it all the great new forces 
which are developing happily modern 
society — democracy, public and pri- 
vate liberty, man's new control over Na- 
ture, and socialization well combined 
with individualism. It seeks to promote 
in all social groupings wider fellowship 
and more effective good- will. Like the 
newer and less comprehensive body 
called the National Association of Ke- 
ligious Liberals — less comprehensive 
only because of its different origin and 
history — the Religious Education As- 
sociation acts on the principle — diver- 
[61] 



A Theological School Conference 

sity in opinion or belief, unity in con- 
duct or action. 

In the summer of 1918 one hundred 
and thirty persons, teachers in forty- 
nine Theological Schools scattered over 
the United States east of the Rocky 
Mountains, and belonging to fifteen dif- 
ferent denominations, met by invitation 
at Harvard University in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, to discuss problems of 
theological education arising out of the 
War. All the proceedings at this Con- 
ference were earnest, harmonious, and 
full of spiritual significance. On the 
morning of the last day seventy-seven 
of these teachers of theology attended a 
Communion Service conducted by a 
Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the University Chapel which 
had never been consecrated. There were 
no deacons ; and the two ministers who 
prepared the table were a Congregation- 
alist and a Unitarian. Five men in a 
[62] 



A True Communion Service 

row were seen to receive the elements 
from the Bishop with the same devout- 
ness. These men were the Dean of the 
Harvard Divinity School a Unitarian, 
the President of the Western Theologi- 
cal Seminary of Pittsburgh a Presby- 
terian, the President of the Garrett 
Biblical Institute a Methodist, the Pres- 
ident of the Union Theological Semi- 
nary of New York a Congregationalist, 
and a Professor of the General Theolog- 
ical Seminary of New York an Episco- 
palian. That Conference and that Com- 
munion Service were milestones on the 
road toward Christian Unity. 

To the United States the world is in- 
debted for the demonstration that on the 
principle of federation a strong, stable, 
and just government can be constructed 
capable of withstanding all the shocks 
and chances of war and peace, of adver- 
sity and prosperity through four gen- 
erations of men, and of engaging the 
[63] 



Federation is not Fusion 

loyalty and affection of all its citizens. 
The same principle applied to the di- 
vided Christian churches will produce 
analogous good results; but as in a 
group of federated states federation 
will not be fusion. 

Now, let us all confirm our hopes 
for mankind and take courage for la- 
bors and struggles to come by contem- 
plating the prodigious new forces 
which have come into the civilized world 
since Law gave free men complete lib- 
erty of association and established the 
right of incorporation with limited lia- 
bility. Since then men have been free 
to cooperate for practical ends of all 
sorts, in manufacturing and mining, in 
trade and commerce, in finance, and in 
educational, charitable, and social un- 
dertakings in infinite variety. Volun- 
tary cooperation by masses of individ- 
ual men for a common object to which 
each contributes his money, his time, 
[64] 



Voluntary Cooperation 



his labor, or his moral support is the 
great new force which the democratic 
peoples have developed since the middle 
of the XlXth century. To be sure men 
may combine for ends not wise, or not 
well-conceived, or even mischievous, but 
in the immense majority of cases the 
ends are good, such as increasing pro- 
duction, facilitating intercommunica- 
tion, promoting thrift, preventing dis- 
ease, curing poverty, and bringing hope 
and light into desolate and joyless 
lives. 

The unification of the Christian 
churches has begun already, because 
they have begun to cooperate effectively 
for beneficial practical ends. It will 
gradually gain in scope and public ap- 
preciation in proportion to its advance 
in cooperative effort to promote human 
virtue and welfare. Individualism will 
not suffer; collectivism will be just; 
mankind will be delivered from much 
[65] 



Better Education of Ministers 

evil ; and the Kingdom of God will seem 
nearer. 

This address, the first of the projected 
series of "unification addresses may ap- 
propriately conclude with a brief indi- 
cation of those tendencies and policies 
which, at the present stage of public 
opinion about religion, seem likely, 
gradually, to bring the various divisions 
of the Christian Church into friendlier 
relations, more participation in beliefs, 
and larger cooperation in promotion of 
human welfare. 

1. The education of ministers for the 
various Protestant denominations has 
been chiefly conducted in denomina- 
tional schools ; so that the candidates for 
the ministry of each denomination are 
brought up in their own denominational 
atmosphere, and each class leaves its 
seminary committed to some creed or 
group of dogmas, which characterizes 
[66] 



Improvements in Education 

the denomination itself. Great im- 
provements in theological education 
have already been introduced in some 
large centres of education in the United 
States. Thus the theological seminaries 
which are connected with universities, 
and certain seminaries at which mem- 
bers of many different denominations 
may study and graduate without com- 
mitting themselves to the creed or con- 
fession of any single denomination, 
point the way to an extensive modifica- 
tion of what has been the education of 
Protestant ministers. All schools of 
divinity which admit members of va- 
rious denominations to their Faculties, 
illustrate the same good tendency. The 
Union Theological Seminary of New 
York City, since it ceased to require all 
its teachers to subscribe to the West- 
minster Confession, is a striking ex- 
ample of this good tendency. Harvard 
University offers an example of a differ- 
[67] 



Affiliated Schools of Theology 

ent sort of cooperation, even more 
promising for the future. The Faculty 
of its Divinity School contained in 1918- 
19 representatives of the following de- 
nominations: Baptist, Congregational, 
Unitarian, and Anglican, besides a 
young Jewish scholar. This Faculty 
was intimately associated with the Fac- 
ulty of the Andover Theological Semi- 
nary (removed to Cambridge) and the 
valuable libraries of the two Schools 
were united in the Andover building 
under the charge of one Librarian. 
Within easy reach of this establishment 
were the Episcopal Theological School 
of Cambridge, the New Church Theo- 
logical School, the Newton Theological 
School (Baptist), and the Methodist 
School connected with Boston Univer- 
sity. Students of all these neighboring 
schools resort to the Harvard- Andover 
School for such courses of instruction 
as they may select with the approval of 
[68] 



A Broader Christian Fellowship 

their several Faculties. This method 
may be followed to great advantage in 
any city which contains several theolog- 
ical seminaries belonging to different 
denominations. In two or three decades 
the ministers in service will be found 
holding much broader views of Chris- 
tian scholarship, discipline, and fellow- 
ship than they could have acquired in 
the former strictly denominational sem- 
inaries. Contact with divinity students 
of many denominations is one advan- 
tage which university and union theo- 
logical schools offer. Men and women 
who desire to see sectarian narrowness 
and bitterness cease in the Christian 
Church may wisely support and foster 
this kind of education for ministers. 

2. We have seen in this lecture how 
divisive dogma and creed have been in 
the Christian Church, and how they get 
embodied in liturgies and rituals, and 
remain there long after the great ma- 
[69] 



The Revision of Liturgies 

jority of the people who use them have 
ceased to believe some or many of the 
embodied dogmas. Frequent revision 
of liturgies and rubrics with a view to 
eliminating from them dogmas or 
phrases implying dogmas, in which 
the great body of the people who use 
the liturgies no longer really believe, 
will do much towards breaking down 
the old fences which have divided the 
Protestant denominations. Moreover 
frequent revision of ancient forms can 
do something to remove obstacles to per- 
fect candor in solemn speech to God. It 
is not good training of the individual 
mind or conscience for a congregation 
to declare with one voice that they be- 
lieve in the resurrection of the body, 
when four-fifths of them do not, in the 
original or any other proper sense. It 
is a good sign, therefore, that revisions 
of liturgies, prayerbooks, and hymnals, 
are more frequent than they used to be. 
[70] 



Unification by Music and Poetry 

3. The use of good music by all de- 
nominations will work a gradual ap- 
proach towards common methods of 
worship; for music is a universal lan- 
guage. Congregational singing of 
hymns, in particular, is a social exercise 
of high value; and the acceptance by 
many denominations of the same hymns 
and tunes for use in public worship, is 
a unifying influence for a nation. The 
unifying influence of music and poetry 
combined is already well illustrated in 
the United States by the universal use 
of the hymns called "America", 
" Nearer My God to Thee", and the 
" Battle Hymn of the Republic", the 
first of which was written by a Baptist 
minister, and the other two by Unita- 
rian women. It will be a good day when 
American children can learn in any 
public school twenty or thirty hymns 
and tunes which are fit to become the 
common possession of the people — 
[71] 



Fighting Common Physical Evils 

hymns free from dogma, expectant of 
good rather than of evil, and full of 
praise and gratitude to God, and of love 
of nature and of the neighbor. 

4. The cooperation of churches in 
good works can be much promoted by 
recognition of the plain fact, that far 
the larger part of Christian activities 
for the common welfare should be di- 
rected against the physical evils which 
actually damage the bodies and souls 
of human beings, and corrupt and de- 
grade human society. These evils can 
be attacked by physical and moral 
means combined, and most of them 
could be prevented if men took pains 
enough to do so. For example, poverty 
is a wretched condition which ordinarily 
results from intemperance, the diseases 
of lust, congenital defects of mind or 
body, malnutrition, or dense ignorance 
combined with sloth. In a few cases, 
that is relatively few, it results from 
downright misfortune or calamity, for 
[72] 



Churches or Lay Organizations 

which the sufferer has no responsibility. 
All the churches have these evils in plain 
view; and many men now know that 
they are preventable for the most part 
by human effort. Unity of action against 
these evils by the churches, in complete 
independence of all questions relating 
to creed, rites, and ceremonies, would 
have strong unifying effect on the 
churches themselves and on society at 
large. If the churches do not learn to 
work together for the elimination of 
these evils, lay organizations will soon 
take over that work; indeed, they are 
at this moment rapidly taking posses- 
sion of that field of benevolent endeavor. 
See on this point the Red Cross work, 
the Health Services of the nation, the 
states, and the cities, the Temperance 
Societies, the Societies for Social Hy- 
giene, and the abundant legislation on 
social subjects. 
5. It would have a unifying effect on 
[73] 



A Common Order of Service 

the divided churches which take Jesus 
Christ as their leader and teacher, if 
approaches could be made towards a 
common order of service in Christian 
worship, an order which should utilize 
what are now the most widely used fea- 
tures in public worship, such as the 
invocation, the singing of hymns and 
chants, the alternate reading of Scrip- 
ture by minister and people, the reading 
of passages from the Scriptures, the 
prayer, the sermon, and the benediction, 
all in the native tongue. During the 
last fifty years innumerable experi- 
ments have been tried on this subject. 
Out of these experiments there seems 
to be coming an order of exercises 
which may obtain a wide acceptance. It 
will have to leave great liberty to the 
minister, and indeed to the congrega- 
tion also ; for a rigid rule would not be 
widely accepted. A careful study of this 
subject is greatly needed. 
[74] 



Common Terms of Admission 

6. Another improvement tending 
toward unification would be the aboli- 
tion of the requirement of subscription 
to a creed for admission to church 
membership. The majority of Protes- 
tant churches still require candidates 
for admission to membership to accept 
a creed; but there are already many 
churches which have abandoned this 
requirement. It would also much pro- 
mote progress toward unification, if a 
universal formula could be adopted for 
baptism, and also for confirmation 
wherever this latter ceremony is in use, 
a formula free from both dogma and 
ecclesiasticism. 

7. The frequent use of Union Ser- 
vices on public festivals or on occasions 
of public anxiety, is distinctly a means 
of unification in religion, because by 
association on such occasions the con- 
gregations learn that in essentials they 
are not divided. Free exchange of pul- 

[75] 



Free Exchange of Pulpits 

pits among ministers of different de- 
nominations teaches the same lesson; 
and clubs consisting of ministers 
of neighboring churches which meet 
statedly for conference, discussion, and 
social intercourse contribute to the 
same good end. These agencies are 
already in operation in some communi- 
ties, and are meeting with encouraging 
success and approval. 

8. Every application of the principle 
of federation to churches in some re- 
spects distinct, advances Christian 
unity. The organization of the Federal 
Council of the Churches of Christ in 
America was a distinct step in advance ; 
and this Council seems to be getting 
ready to take other steps in the same di- 
rection. The state federations are also 
doing good work within their respective 
limits, especially by bringing about the 
union into one strong church of the too 
numerous and therefore feeble churches 
[76] 



Common Action by Distinct Churches 

already planted in a small community. 
This process closely resembles the sub- 
stitution in a country town of one strong 
central school for half a dozen poor 
schools scattered in as many districts. 
In both cases the cheap automobile has 
been a great help. The Young Men's 
Christian Associations and the Young 
Women's have shown that an indefinite 
amount of useful work can be done for 
the good of the whole community by 
the common action of many distinct 
churches or denominations, all contrib- 
uting money and service, and all with- 
out insistence on any creed or ritual. It 
is likely that the practical Christianity 
of the future will be characterized by 
this freedom from creedal or dogmatic 
limitations ; because it is clear that the 
rising generations cannot be induced to 
take much interest in the historical 
creeds and dogmas which so intensely 
interested their forebears, such as the 
[77] 



The Retirement of Dogmas 

Nicene and Athanasian creeds and the 
dogmas of the Trinity, vicarious atone- 
ment, or predestination. The rising 
generations in Christian lands are ask- 
ing more and more for the essential 
Christianity, freed from metaphysical 
speculations which have for them not 
even an historical interest. A similar 
difficulty has been encountered by de- 
nominational mission boards trying 
to convert to Christianity intelligent 
heathen like the Japanese, Chinese, or 
Hindoos. The heathen inquirer took no 
interest in the differentiating dogmas, 
and indeed was repelled by them. So 
the missionaries in the field learned to 
teach Christianity as Jesus taught it, 
and to say nothing about the subsequent 
divisive dogmas; and the Mission 
Boards in the far Occident became will- 
ing to cooperate with each other in some 
measure for good works at home and 
abroad. 

[78] 



The New Conditions 



9. Since the invention of printing and 
the gradual acquisition of the art of 
reading by the masses of civilized man- 
kind, theology and religion have ceased 
to be for thinking people the main sub- 
jects of speculation and interest out- 
side of the household and the earning 
of the livelihood. In the sixteenth cen- 
tury the Church provided the day of 
rest, the holidays, the festivals, most of 
the music, the pageants, and also the 
chief calls to scholarship, idealism, and 
one kind of spiritual life. The secular 
powers, and the secular press have taken 
over all these functions of the Church ; 
and every day a flood of books, maga- 
zines, weeklies and dailies pours into 
every city, town, and village. New pol- 
itics, sciences, arts, and literatures 
furnish an infinite number of subjects 
for speculation and research. Further- 
more, the study of comparative religion 
and the new art of Biblical criticism 
[79] 



Uniting for Worship and Service 

have shaken the foundations of the old 
theological systems. So, modern men 
and women and especially the young 
people, having an infinite variety of 
mental interests, and being solicited by 
many forms of social service, have 
ceased to care for the Christian dogmas 
and rituals which were the causes of 
fierce wars, devastations, revolts, and 
revolutions three hundred years ago, 
and almost down to the present century. 
If, therefore, the divided Churches 
should decide not to dwell on their 
theoretical differences, but to empha- 
size their agreement in essentials, they 
would find the general temper of society 
favorable to every effort on their part 
to unite for the worship of God and the 
service of man. Increasing democracy 
in governments and industries will 
approve such a policy. 



[80] 



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